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Destroyed diff gears, anyone?

FinCrawler

Pebble Pounder
Joined
May 14, 2010
Messages
130
Location
Earth
I was crawling yesterday when suddenly i heard a ticking sound everytime i turned right.
Well, i thought that the sound comes from the diff locker which has probably loosened, so i tightened it and continued driving.
Didnt went long when i was in a bad position with Venom and when i applied full throttle, i heard "SKKKRRAAAKK" and lost all power from front axle.. :shock:

Went home, opened my diff up and the destruction was total..
Every spider gear and also those bigger gears were completely in pieces.
Also, the diff locker holes in the plastic casing had changed their shape from hole to oval.

Now, i dont really know what had happened, but it seems that the plastic casings diff locking holes did this somehow when they began to resemble an oval shape.
Why did that destroy the gears i cant understand.

Oh well, immediately i ordered that alloy diff casing and new diff gears from Tower Hobbies.

Just wondering, how this can be even possible? Anyone else had destroyed diff gears?
 
I thought about it but i want to keep the option to use the diffs as theyre planned since im going to build a better working remote diff lockers at some point.
 
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When I first got my creeper out, the spider gears exploded after about 5 min. of run time on flat ground and some very easy climbing, I did the axial locker mod, but now that the flm lockers are an option, I would go there.
 
Yeah, Mine got wasted also, I got a new set and put it in the front and over the weekend, i Belive the Rear just went out on me, Im JB welding them in for now untill i get some $ for the FLM locker set,

so expect them to probly end up going out again on ya, tough call if ya should lock them up for your porject or not,

The alloy cases are a bit overkill and over priced, you better off buying a new plastic case for the Venom and saved the $$$ for other upgrades. Also the Alloy cases are for the Axial and are ment for the AXIAL gears, Unsure if your going to beable to use the Venom gears with the alloy caseing.
 
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The alloy cases are a bit overkill and over priced, you better off buying a new plastic case for the Venom and saved the $$$ for other upgrades. Also the Alloy cases are for the Axial and are ment for the AXIAL gears, Unsure if your going to beable to use the Venom gears with the alloy caseing.

Where is it stated that these are for Axial:

http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&I=LXWJN1&P=Z

Also, i dont think those are over-priced. Theres $4 difference between those and the original plastic casing, so i think i can live with that.. ;-)
 
I just jb'd mine from the get go because the locker pin kept bending only issue I have is the front pinion and dif gear slip from time to time so I think I'll have to replace the gears at some point.
 
Mine did the same thing where the diff locker holes turn to ovals. Then the spiders broke teeth and all. I pulled mine out and brazed the front gear set together. It was such a pain to braze them that when the rears finally broke, I just used JB Weld for them. Both are holding up splendidly so far.
 
JB Weld'em I hadn't had the gears strip yet but the diff would unlock under load. Since I JB welded them, haven't had a single issue. It's really easy to do as well."thumbsup"
 
2 pieces of a cut coil spring did it for me,,no problems from day one. and no JBWeld to ever deal with,,,or wait for.
cut coil spring. I wonder if you can use some of the inner springs from the shocks for this.
Back to subject. I just finished building mine yesterday and from all the grief the right front VCD gave me, i didnt want to mess with anything in the diffs anymore...so i ordered the FLM's. That way it will be done with:flipoff:. The driveshafts are a whole other story.
 
Where is it stated that these are for Axial:

http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&I=LXWJN1&P=Z
Axial? You are in the Venom forum. And the Tower Hobbies link you have up, proudly says "[SIZE=+2]Venom Alloy Differential Case Set Creeper"[/SIZE]

besides, we got a lot of torque going thru those tiny gears. The reduced gear ratio further adds to the stress the spider gears get. Shimming the gears up, so they do not move around is a good bet. That is why your holes have "ovalized". On my 3hp nitro truck, I've had no problems after doing this shimming job. I haven't had my Venom gears blow up yet, but i think I'll avoid it all together and shim them up.
 
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Where is it stated that these are for Axial:

http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&I=LXWJN1&P=Z
Axial? You are in the Venom forum. And the Tower Hobbies link you have up, proudly says "[SIZE=+2]Venom Alloy Differential Case Set Creeper"[/SIZE]

besides, we got a lot of torque going thru those tiny gears. The reduced gear ratio further adds to the stress the spider gears get. Shimming the gears up, so they do not move around is a good bet. That is why your holes have "ovalized". On my 3hp nitro truck, I've had no problems after doing this shimming job. I haven't had my Venom gears blow up yet, but i think I'll avoid it all together and shim them up.

You might want to check out what i was referring to with that Axial thing..
See that quote what i was answering for..?
 
I think there has been some confusion here,,,,In your OP it sounded like you were talking about diff housings,,otherwise known,,to most of us as axle housings,,,what you are referring to in the Tower link is a differential carrier,,it is a housing but it carries the diff internals. The whole Axial thing is a mix up based on the Aluminum axle housings (that some of thought you meant) offered as a replacement piece that does indeed use Axial internals.

The alloy diff "carrier" that you are getting from Tower or got or whatever,,,will be an improvement but only if you bullet proof the rest of the assembly to take full advantage of the alloy carrier.

Ive thought about drilling 3 holes through the internals (ring gear and diff gears and bolting everything together,,but the ring lock out I use has been non-problematic so Ill stick with what is working.
 
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